Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne discusses the seven questions he has for publishers at the upcoming Alliance Open House.

With the annual Alliance Open House coming up this weekend in beautiful Ft. Wayne, I came up with a list of questions I would like to ask a number of the attending publishers:

  1. Wizards of the Coast--The focus on Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons is great and I know that is where your bread is buttered, so to speak but what about your catalog of boardgame titles?  TableTop gave a nice boost to sales of Betrayal at House on the Hill but are there any plans to promote other backlist titles such as RoboRally, Guillotine, Great Dalmuti, Risk 2144 or Diplomacy?  All still sell slowly but I would sure like to see what they could do with the sort of promotional push Magic and D&D get.
     
  2. Fantasy Flight Games--Congratulations on getting the X-Wing Core Set included as part of Force Friday.  I haven't seen a copy of the game yet so could you tell me if there was anything included in it that sent purchasers to the LGS to buy additional ships for the game, those ships that Target doesn't carry?
     
  3. And while we're at it, Fantasy Flight Games, Days of Wonder, Z Man Games--You have track records of running out of your best-selling titles during the holiday shopping season.  Have you made any plans to build up inventory this year in order to avoid a repeat?
     
  4. WizKids--You have really started pushing Organized Play registration this year, so any plans to create OP software that we can download to the computer to make uploading results easier?  It can be a bit of a pain to handle reporting when the internet is running slow.  Also, you finally announce that stores with remaining boosters of War of Light could start selling them without violating our agreement with you.  When will you post a date allowing us to sell off old Organized Play products from Star Trek Attack Wing and D&D Attack Wing?  OP for both games has died off here and we have months old OP materials sitting in backstock that we would like to liquidate.
     
  5. Plaid Hat Games--Will Dead of Winter return to stock in time for the holiday selling season and will you have enough product to supply sales through the season?  Do you have any plans for expansions and if so, when?
     
  6. Steve Jackson Games--Any more releases planned for Evil Stevie's Toys?  The ducks didn't do that well but I can always sell more Cthulhu plushies.  Do you have any research showing demand for the guest artist versions of Munchkin?   I can understand guest artists on new versions of Munchkin (Munchkin Kitchen, anyone?) but do you have anything indicating that Munchkin has a strong enough fan base that a player will want another copy of Space Munchkin that only differs due to the art?
     
  7. Green Ronin--Fantasy Age?  Titansgrave?  Will we get these while there is still a buzz from the first season of the web series?  Any chance for us to get a limited edition signed by the Titansgrave group?

I think that's enough to start with, don't you?

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.